


i'll follow you into the light

by WickedSong



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: F/M, SPOILERS ABOUND, an epilogue of sorts, fluff abound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 20:52:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8861131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WickedSong/pseuds/WickedSong
Summary: Yes, the fighting is finally over and their souls and weapons can be laid to rest.
 But their story? Maybe, just maybe, this is its true beginning.  Noctis, Lunafreya, and what comes next.





	

**Author's Note:**

> -My relationship with this game is quite a story in itself. I was so dismissive of the whole thing because I hated that it felt like a lot of the story was told in a movie and anime series. Then a day before release I bought Kingsglaive, and I caved and bought the game the next day. So it appears the Final Fantasy series will forever own me.
> 
> -The game itself isn't without flaws, but at its core, to me, it felt like a Final Fantasy game. A good marker of a Final Fantasy game for me is if I spend the entire second half of it crying every time something (even small) happens, and I did that for this game. So yeah, FFXV = a Final Fantasy.
> 
> -I'm in shipping hell with these two. I know a lot of people say they would've cared more if Noct/Luna had had more screentime together. I get that, but for me, it's knowing that all they had was the book they passed between each other, and that, despite the fact they wanted to see one another again, they just didn't have the chance before everything happened. It's the tragedy of it all. They have all the elements of a classic FF ship to me, which, of course makes them divisive within the fandom too.
> 
> -Sorry for the mini-essay, just had some feels.

It’s over. Finally.

Noctis feels himself fall. Fall and disappear, as the world envelops around him, as if he was never truly a part of it to begin with.

The next time he opens his eyes, he wonders who will be here to greet him. He’s not a fool. He knows he no longer walks in the land of the living.

Perhaps it will be his father?

Then he thinks better of it. He knows his father will have already ascended. Maybe – most likely – he will see him again. But their moment has been and gone; when they came face to face once more and his fate had been cemented.

There was no one else who could have, and no one else Noctis would have wanted to deliver that final blow.

He then hopes none of his friends are present. He has left them to the world as it is now. They are to do what he cannot; lead and rebuild. Knowing it is in their hands made it so much easier to do what he had to do.

He loved them, more than he’d ever been able to articulate. They were his brothers, and there were no others he would entrust with such a task.

Finally, after stumbling around a little in the darkness of the beyond, he comes across a light. Similar to the one that shone from the crystal.

Similar, but _so_ different.

And there she is.

She’s wearing a white dress. _The_ white dress that he’d only seen before in a shop window. She smiles, eternal and ethereal. It makes him blush and feel awkward – that this special smile would be just for him.

She looks just the same as the day she died. He’s ten years older. Strangely though, for the first time in these past ten years, he doesn’t feel it.

After all, there’s always been something about Luna. Even when they were little more than children, she had this amazing ability to put him at ease. Some might have said this was because she was the Oracle, and that it was down to her divine powers.

Noctis would have wagered that it was just the kind of person Luna was.

They spent their lives apart, but there was a certain security in the messages they’d send back and forth to one another. They held a comfort he quickly found he could not replicate elsewhere.

As comforting a presence as Luna is, Noctis can still feel himself shuffling his feet and averting his gaze. There was a faint blush creeping on his cheeks, and as always, just like their first meeting all those years ago; Luna is the one to make the first move.

She says nothing, however, and when he finally lifts his head to look at her, something in her smile fades. It dips from happiness to sadness in the span of a second.

“You’re here,” she says. “You’re-“

She lingers thoughtfully. He gives her a nod of encouragement. There’s no need for her to skirt around it, for her to feel bad or in any way sorry for his ultimate fate.

He spent a long ten years inside the crystal coming to terms with it. He accepted it.

Just as she’d accepted her own.

“Dead,” Luna says with an air of finality that doesn’t feel as grave as Noctis supposes it should.

With a nod, he signs, and then returns the smile she’d given him.

“And the Light’s returned,” he answers. “A fair enough trade.”

“Noctis…”

He shakes his head. He doesn’t need an apology. Besides, if anyone should apologise it should be him. She went through so much for him. So much that he hadn’t realised the enormity of it until much later.

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Luna. That’s what I always wanted to tell you, you know?”

Maybe death has just made him more forthcoming or maybe it’s the past ten years without anybody, without _her._ Whichever it is, he steps forward this time and takes her hand.

“You were with me the whole time.”

There’s so much more he wants to say. But in this moment, in the final precipice between his life and eternal rest, it’s all he _can_ say, without losing his nerve, without falling in her arms and begging for forgiveness she’ll insist isn’t needed.

Finally, Luna smiles again. This time it’s as real and genuine as the first moment they saw each other again.

“Well, I promised, didn’t I?”

Noctis remembers. The soul-crushing vision he’d had just after the encounter with Leviathan. It had been the moment he’d _known_ unequivocally; that when he opened his eyes he would be waking in a world without her.

A silent moment passes between them. She’s remembering it too.

“Come,” Luna finally says, her hand still in his. “I think it’s time we rest.”

But she doesn’t pull him along just yet. Noctis looks behind him once more. He’s grateful to Luna for giving him this moment.

Acceptance isn’t exactly the same as letting go, and he’s finding the latter harder. Maybe a little easier just by the virtue of the woman standing by his side.

He can’t see it, but he _knows_ that the world will be alright. Night will still fall, but at least now, dawn will always break through.

And his friends, his most trusted companions, will make sure it stays that way.

He turns back to Luna. She doesn’t have to ask if he’s ready this time because she knows.

As they begin to walk towards the bright light that will take them towards their eternal slumber – the reward for all they’ve done for the world – Noctis has a thought.

It has him stop in his tracks.

“Noctis?” Luna asks, with a tilt of her head, still holding his hand in her own.

He smiles at her.

“I was just thinking,” he replies. “I believe; we have a wedding to attend.”

The confusion clears from her face and is replaced by an unmistakable happiness. There’s tears in her eyes, unshed, but those of happiness.

At least Noctis hopes.

No, not hopes. He _knows_.

Because he also knows that it meant as much to her, as it meant to him.

“I believe,” she answers, gazing up at him, “you’re correct.”

Yes, the fighting is finally over and their souls and weapons can be laid to rest.

But their story? Maybe, just maybe, this is its true beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> -*throws confetti* Too sappy? Too cheesy? Good. These two deserved it!
> 
> -Fic title from 'The Light' by Sara Bareilles.
> 
> -Let me know what you guys think. Obviously this is my first attempt at FFXV fic (and may be my only depending on ideas), but between this and giffing on Tumblr, this is the most active I've been for a fandom in a long while so it's been fun - and sad. Very sad too.


End file.
